By Matt Chilliak

John Deaton in 2024. (WMP&I)

“Have you ever killed someone?” isn’t the type of question you would normally need to ask someone running for public office.

It’s probably the most important question no one is asking Massachusetts Republican candidate John Deaton, who’s running for U.S. Senate again.

Before you think this is some slanderous, hyperbolic partisan attack, take Deaton’s own word for it. He recounted it in his 2023 self-published memoir, Food Stamp Warrior. Forty years ago, as a teenager, he tells the story of how he shot a gun at a vehicle and saw someone in the backseat slump over as it drove away.

“I’m still not sure if it’s because I hit him or if he ducked,” wrote Deaton, asking further, “did he live or die?”

Now, I’m no lawyer, but that sounds like it could be a serious, violent crime which may not be subject to a statute of limitations. One for which Deaton should be held accountable. If not for shooting and possibly killing someone—which he posits may be the case—then for attempting to do so, or at least for recklessly using a firearm.

While the circumstances surrounding Deaton and the shooting may be sympathetic (he had just witnessed a friend be shot by someone in the same car), shooting at a car full of people would likely have been a crime. His memoir sounds like a confession.

More perplexing than Deaton deciding to tell this story in the run-up to launching his first political campaign against Senator Elizabeth Warren in 2024 is the fact that this fatal incident has never been thoroughly investigated by an enterprising reporter, political operative, or law enforcement. Surely, someone out there is interested in the questions raised by Deaton’s account.

Who was it that he allegedly shot? Was it the shooter of his friend? Did nearby hospitals take in any gun-shot patients that night? Did the person survive? If not, was their family notified of what took place? Can Deaton say without a doubt that stray bullets didn’t hit any innocent unsuspecting bystanders as he “unloaded the clip”? Is this story even true?

There are plenty of extraneous litmus tests politicians face when seeking the public trust. This isn’t one of them.

Warren handily defeated Deaton in 2024. (WMP&I)

These are questions voters deserve to have answered. But for some reason, the shooting has received scant coverage in the press: a couple paragraphs in a Politico article and a quote from Deaton how he “hopes he didn’t” shoot the guy in a WBUR article. Both are from his 2024 campaign against Warren. Neither article dug any deeper into the details.

One question worth asking is, “Did this incident even take place to begin with?” A story about maybe killing someone in a drive-by shootout is a surefire way to earn some extra street cred. Especially if you don’t need to elaborate on the details.

Maybe for some voters this doesn’t seem like a big deal. It was over 40 years ago, some may say, or that Deaton was simply shooting back. He’s now an upstanding, law-abiding citizen, expressing remorse for his actions.

Republican voters have grown accustomed to forgiving the misdeeds of their preferred candidates. (See none other than our current president for a prime example of this.) For MassGOP leaders, it’s hard to bite the hand that just paid off your party’s $346,000 debt, as Deaton did after the party moved to endorse him months ahead of the state convention, where delegates would normally vote on such an endorsement. But turning a blind eye to a possible homicide goes beyond typical partisanship.

With there being so little media coverage of Deaton’s shooting incident, it’s not a stretch to wonder if any of the MassGOP state committee members who voted on the expedited endorsement knew that they were endorsing someone who possibly killed someone. Although, the more sobering thought would that they did know and voted for the endorsement nonetheless.

A lot of politicians like to pay lip-service to the notion of accountability. This is Deaton’s chance to prove himself sincere and clear the air. He had the financial means to establish the publishing company that published his memoirs to begin with. Surely he can afford an investigation to set the record straight.

It might even boost his polling—no matter what he finds.

Matt Chilliak is the chair of the Andover Democratic Town Committee and has over a decade of experience as a political organizer and strategist.